Another Facebook Change

Have you ever noticed how many times you '"like" "comment" and maybe even "share" a Facebook post from your friends... then all of a sudden you realize it's more than just a few days old?

Facebook just announced a change in it's News Feed to show you fewer, if any at all, older posts. In other words, today's posts will be like Twitter's... once it's presented... down it goes into News Feed oblivion.

Facebook will now show you what it considers to be more "timely posts" as opposed to how much engagement it created. You may be able to grab a spot up there if Facebook... in it's infinite wisdom... feels your story is "trending."

“There are also times when a post that is a day or two old may not be relevant to you anymore,” Facebook said in its announcement. “Our latest update to News Feed ranking looks at two new factors to determine if a story is more important in the moment than other types of updates.”

It's always been easy to stay at the top of the News Feed by creating engagement (those comments, likes and shares I speak of.) However it's all about to end. It's not that it won't help... but to marketers specifically, your going to see a fall in engagement from your customer base, unless, of course, you fork over some of that hard-earned-cash you have just standing by to pay for more Facebook ads.

Ah yes... there it is again... It's all about the money.

Generally speaking, there will be less older, and more newer posts in your News Feed which will please most users. However, it's a blow in the head to marketers. Plus Facebook is trying to woo the News Media to use its platform which the general public seems to engage with more regularly. aka: Trending

Good for them!

Bottom line... It looks as if that 1 - 2% of our fan base that Facebook allows to see our content, is going to shrink further.

As you all know... my strategy has always been to create "Relationships" in Social Media in order to connect with them in other avenues... having already done this, Facebook doesn't scare me.

They just validated my new love for Google+!

Cheers!
Top Hat Terry
Social Media Phoenix
terry@SocialMediaPhoenix.org

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The New Twitter is the Old Facebook

The NEW TWITTER is here!

Some of the highlights…

• A fresh and easy interface.
• The ability to ‘Pin’ you tweet.
• A notification bar that let’s you know someone is engaging with you.
• Tweets that have received more engagement will appear slightly larger, so your best content is easy to find. (And as Social Media Experts we know how important engagement is.)

In short, Twitter’s profile pages now use browser-space more efficiently, fitting more in without cramping your view.

As I wandered through, playing with it today, I had this incredible déjà vu. I got flash backs to years ago when I was an avid MySpacer. It was a tough choice to switch over to Facebook at the time… but that’s where everyone was going so I had to jump ship. (In other words, I didn’t want to go down with the ship)
What I saw then was basically what I saw today. A very simplistic, easy to use, FRIENDLY, common space for people to engage with each other…. just like I felt when I moved to Facebook.
Twitter has come beyond what I used to call “Online Texting” with it’s 140 character limit. (You can get more if you pay) Now you add pictures, check-in’s are available. and best of all…
Filtered Tweets: Now you can choose which timeline to view when checking out other profiles. Select from these options: Tweets, Tweets with photos/videos, or Tweets and replies. This is one area Facebook missed the boat. Instead of limiting the reach of your posts… the user get’s to pick out what he wants to see.

Look familiar? Just add your profile pic, upload a banner and viola! You have your old Facebook back.
For all you photo techies who haven’t checked it out yet…
Your best inset picture size is 400 X 400
Banner Size 1500 X 500
The New Twitter hasn’t reached mobile capabilities yet… it’s being tested as we speak… so expect it in the not-to-distant future.
So to all of you I say, “Welcome back to the old Facebook” … WHOOPS… I mean “Welcome to the New Twitter!”

Cheers!
Top Hat Terry
Social Media Phoenix
602-492-7272

Source:
Top Hat Terry on Facebook
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